


If it’s Mercy you want...

by HereLiesBethBoland



Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: F/M, I'm Sorry, Mild Language, One Shot, conversation kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 06:10:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20304760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HereLiesBethBoland/pseuds/HereLiesBethBoland
Summary: ** mercy: withholding of wrath to someone who is deserving + he's never been able to give her what she deserves **Beth visits Rio in the hospital post 2x13 and actually cares about what she did.





	If it’s Mercy you want...

**Author's Note:**

> I do not own these characters 
> 
> Thank you to Annika7 and DropKickDisco for reading and consulting !!

He wakes up groggy again, his head feeling like it weighs a hundred pounds. He’d been fighting it, not wanting to leave the pleasant dreamworld he’d been inhabiting. She had been there; glowing and soft as usual. The tight sadness that always seemed to fade while he slept was seeping back into his chest. As he begins to fully awaken, Rio becomes aware of a foreign sound disrupting the familiar chorus of beeping and shifting hospital equipment. It’s almost like sniffling...he opens his eyes slowly, allowing them to adjust to the sunlight peeking in through a space between the heavy curtains. 

He’s slow from the fentanyl, so it takes him a few seconds to bring his eyes to where the sniffling and snuffing sounds were coming from. They land on what appears to be the back of a strawberry blonde head, laying next to him on the left. It takes his brain a second to catch up to what his eyes are seeing, but there was really no mistaking her. She’s the only person he knows with hair like a sunset. 

Rio doesn’t move or speak. Just watches what’s happening. She’s sitting to his left on a chair that’s all the way to his bed, and her head is right next to him. She’s crying, he realizes, and her hand is resting on his wrist. 

“I’m sorry I’m so sorry,” she whispers and begins to sit back up. Rio quickly closes his eyes again- not ready to face her yet 

She gingerly takes hold of his hand, cradling it between hers. He feels the burn of her gaze and can picture it in his mind; blue flames which simultaneously melt and infuriate him. 

The soft caress of her thumb against the back of his hand sends a shiver up his arm, and he curses his body for reacting to her even after what she’s done. 

“Are you awake?” she asks. She can probably see his eyes shifting back and forth, he’s a bad liar in any capacity. Time to face the music and dance… he thinks. 

“What are you doing Elizabeth?” he asks, eyes remaining closed. 

She startles and slowly removes her hands from his. “I...I just needed to see you,”

He looks at her then and is instantly shook by her appearance. Her face is drawn and pale making her huge eyes seem even bigger. Her hair is longer and frames her face lifelessly. It looks like she’s lost at least 20 pounds and despite all of that, she’s beautiful. He wants to pull her into him but that would be crazy. 

She could’ve killed him. Had tried. 

The drugs made Rio different. He can feel rage bubbling under his skin but he doesn’t have the capacity to give in to it. Right alongside the rage is this unreasonable feeling of affection that he has for Beth Boland, that no matter what he does he can’t shake it. 

Not even three bullets to the chest were enough to shake it loose. It was like she was burned into him. 

“You-..,” he starts, coughing suddenly and she sits up straighter. He waves her off when he sees her looking around the room for some way to help him. “M’ok. happens when I wake up.” She nods and he looks at her again, seeing her mouth form a slight frown. Her eyes look sad. Empty.

“You look like shit, Ma.” 

“I know,” she says and just continues to stare at him. “How are you… I mean are you doing ok?” 

“M’fine. No thanks to you.” she seems to cringe at the fierce tone of his voice.

“I should go,” she says, eyes avoiding his now. “I just needed to make sure you were…,” her words die on her lips as she rises out of the chair. 

“Alive?” he guesses snidely. She nods weakly and swipes a few tears off her face as she walks to the door. 

“You need to eat,” he calls out. 

She freezes with her hand on the door. Turning to face him again, she leans against it and lets her head fall back. Their eyes meet and he sees more silent tears falling down her face; she’s not hiding them. 

“Why you cryin?” 

“I just can’t believe this happened. I can’t believe I did this,” she says gesturing to where he lay and he can see how tortured she looks. “It feels like a nightmare I can’t wake up from.” 

“I’ve survived worse,” he says, brushing off her dramatic assessment. 

“You have?” 

Rio turns to look out the window then, suddenly overwhelmed by the sight of her. The whole thing was surreal. He can’t think straight. Never could when she was involved. 

Obviously. 

“Are you gonna kill me?” she asks quietly. He doesn’t answer her for a while, content to stare out the window and let her wonder. Of course he wasn’t going to kill her. He couldn’t or he would have by now. 

He thinks he might love her which is too fucked up to even entertain right now. 

And it’s this frustrating truth which causes him to look back at her slight form. She’s slunk to the floor, back still against it, looking at him helplessly. 

“What _ was _that?” she asks defeatedly and he knows she’s referring to that night. 

“That was you makin’ the wrong decision.”

“Rio,” she says desperately and something snaps in him when he hears his name fall from her lips. It’s the second time she’s ever said it. The first time, she was under him. 

“I had it all planned out. Takin’ Turner out would have given us a clean slate.”

“How would that not have come back to us. To me? When his entire case revolved around me? What you were asking me… no _ demanding me _ to do was a death sentence.” 

“I had things in place for all that. I had it covered, if you would have just trusted me…,” 

“You told me not to trust you!” she interrupts him. “You were sending me body parts in the mail. You were locking me in with eternal amounts of cash, keeping me in debt- like a servant. You showed me those cameras..you.. you cleared out your apartment, it looked like you were disappearing! How was I…? I didn’t…” She’s panting now, having risen to her feet and seems to be hyperventilating. 

“Oh..god..,” she runs to the bathroom and barely makes it before puking into the toilet. 

Rio sighs and closes his eyes. A deep shame settles over him- not because she is obviously a wreck, but because things had gotten so far out of his control. 

The last year feels like it flew by in a flash; that everything had fallen apart quickly. But the truth was that it had been a slow fade… he had felt in control of the situation, making calculated decisions as always- weighing his options, holding his cards close. And yet as he looks back, he realizes every decision had been colored by his obsession with _ her. _

Everything he valued had been compromised by his disgusting need to be consumed by her. 

Only thing left to do was try and clean it up as thoroughly as possible. 

As she comes out of the bathroom she looks at him tentatively. “What now?” 

“You still owe me.” 

“I know.” 

“And I had to make a deal with Turner that night. He gonna be comin around wantin to take you down with my help.” 

She stands there, wringing a paper towel between her fingers. Tension rolling off of her. 

“I ain’t workin with no fed if that’s what you’re worrying about. Fuck him.” 

“We could,” she begins and then stops. 

He waits patiently for her to spit it out. He knows what she’s thinking already. It’s their only option, really. 

“We could feed him false information?” 

Rio nods and looks away from her again. “That would be real convenient for you, huh? Mmhm. Only thing is… what’s in it for me?” 

She has the decency to consider that for a moment, or maybe she just can’t come up with any benefit to him. everything was about her after all wasn’t it? Did she ever consider him? 

Sometimes it felt like she didn’t think he was human or something. 

_ Damn these drugs. _

“Is there a way to quickly legitimize your dealings? On paper?” 

He just looks at her. 

“Because maybe you could string him along just long enough to implicate him somehow. I mean, we know he lacks ethics already.. If you hold me just close enough to make him obsess but then pull back, we could probably force him to act outside the boundaries of the law.” 

“And then what? He gets taken off the case and some other suit takes his place?” 

“Don’t cases get thrown out when there’s been some kind of law broken?” 

“You been watchin’ too much Law and Order.” 

“There’s gotta be some truth to that though.” 

Rio hums and pretends to be considering her offer. Thing is, he already knows what he's gonna do with Turner. It’s not too far off from what Elizabeths suggesting. Rio has more on Turner than the guy realized, and he has no leg up whatsoever on this deal. He thought he did though, and Rio was gonna let him think that for awhile. 

Nah he knew exactly what he was gonna do. Had it worked out within minutes of waking up from surgery. A visit from Gretchen and the plan had been sealed up; air-right and ready to be initiated. 

But Elizabeth didn’t need to know that. At least not yet. 

“Aight we’ll see how it goes.” 

“Ok,” she says. His eyes drift shut then, the painkillers seeping into his bloodstream- just chasing off the beginnings of excruciating pain that would thankfully be staved off. 

He pictures her in his mind as he starts to fall asleep again. She’s staring at him, unsure what to do. Knowing she should leave but stuck with a deep need for any type of closure. 

He can feel it coming off of her.. he still can’t figure out how he seems to know her so well. Her behavior was unpredictable as hell but what she was feelin? That reached out with sticky hands and latched on to him any time they were in a room together. 

Today was no exception. 

He wasn’t gonna give it, the closure, at least he didn’t think he would. Did she deserve it? Or was it forgiveness she was after? He kinda wants to though, especially when confronted with the look in her eyes and the fact that he knows- _ he knows _ why she shot him. 

He understands. Because he knows her. 

He feels fuzzy, too. Like he could just give in for once ... let her see him.

Her voice floats through his ear canal like a mist. “I hate myself for what I did to you,” he hears her say. “But I hate you more for putting me in that position.” 

He hates himself too. For ever involving himself with her… and yet- 

“I don’t hate _ you.” _he says softly. Sorta hoping she doesn’t hear. 

He thinks he hears her say “I don’t hate you either,” but that doesn’t make sense, after what she already said. 

Nothing about this thing between them made sense, and yet, in the midst of that he found this nagging purpose. To make it fit.. Like if he could make it fit, _ everything _ about them would make sense. 

_ Must be the drugs, _ he thinks as he slips under. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This is just something I kept imagining I hope you guys liked it. :)  
I may do a second part and in my world Brio is always endgame/ happily ever after. They belong together. <3I avoided posting this for awhile because there’s just no rationale for what happened. So difficult to write what I want without throwing them OOC alas- I attempted to make sense of what we have.. for healing purposes. :)


End file.
